Gender and communications

Gender and communications
by Valérie Boire
Thursday, March 6, 2014
CIMMYT Writers Meeting
An initiative of the CGIAR
Generation
Challenge Programme (GCP)

 Gender-neutral writing
 Gender in pictures
 Gender in context
Themes
Gender and Communications – CIMMYT Writers Meeting – March 6, 2014

Alternatives to “he,” “him,” “his,” or “himself”
 No single gender-neutral writing style has emerged as
the norm; all of these alternatives has been met with
objections…
 "he or she" (or "she or he")
 Instead of: “If a student studies hard, he will succeed.”
• “If a student studies hard, he or she will succeed.”
• “If a student studies hard, she or he will succeed.”
 Alternation of she and he:
• Use the gender of the primary author.
• Alternate between "she" and "he".
• Alternate by paragraph or chapter.
• Use he and she to make distinctions between two groups of people.

 Abbreviated forms: "he/she", "(s)he", "s/he", "him/her", "his/her",
"himself/herself"
 “If a student studies hard, s/he will succeed.”
 Changing to plural
 “If students study hard, they will succeed.”
 “Each partner will be more involved if he has a voice in the decision.”
Revised: “Partners will be more involved if they have a voice in the
decision.”
 Rewrite to avoid the need for any pronoun at all
 “Students who study hard will succeed.”
 Similarly, drop the possessive form his
 “The average student is worried about his grades.” /
Revised: “The average student is worried about _ grades.”
 Substituting an article:
 “When the employee hands in his report, review it immediately.” /
Revised: “When the employee hands in the report, review it
immediately.”

 Singular or epicene "they“, when they refers to an
individual person of unknown or unspecified gender
 Examples:
• “On a day like today, anyone would want to wear their best
clothes”
• "We can only know an actual person by observing their behaviour
in a variety of different situations." (George Orwell)
• “No mother should be forced to testify against their child.”
• “Nobody in their right mind would do a thing like that”
• “A child becomes an adult when they turn 18.”
 This construction is becoming increasingly acceptable but is still
considered ungrammatical in formal writing; use with caution.
 Some recommend recasting generic expressions as plurals to
avoid the criticisms of either party.
 The Cambridge Guide to English Usage (2004) :
“Generic/universal their provides a gender-free pronoun,
avoiding the exclusive his and the clumsy his/her.”

 In everyday language, substitute with the first
or second-person pronoun
 “As an administrator, he faces excessive paperwork
daily.”
Revised: “As administrators, we face excessive
paperwork daily.”
 “The tenant must keep his apartment clean and tidy.”
Revised: “You must keep your apartment clean and
tidy.”
 Sparingly, substitute with one/one's
 “He might wonder what his response should be.”
Revised: “One might wonder what one's response
should be.”

 Recast in the passive voice
“The average citizen pays his taxes promptly.”
Revised: “Taxes are paid promptly by the average
citizen.”
Some object to the passive voice when its use allows
the performer of an action to escape responsibility for
that action. Ex.: “She was assaulted.”
 Substitute a participial phrase for a clause
“Listen to the two-year-old as he uses his short,
simple sentences to communicate.”
Revised: “Listen to the two-year-old using short,
simple sentences to communicate.”

 Repeat the noun
“The trainee must submit the registration
papers by July 1. His superior will send
confirmation by mail.”
Revised: ”The trainee must submit the course
registration papers by July 1. The trainee’s
superior will send confirmation by mail.”
 Use sentence fragments where
appropriate (e.g. work descriptions, c.v.'s)
“drafts policies, edits materials and develops
programs”

The pseudo-generic man
 “"Some men are female.“
 Truly generic use of the word man would be perceived as false,
funny, or insulting",
 Sentences can be adapted to avoid this use:
“To boldly go where no man has gone before”
Revised: “To boldly go where no one has gone before.”
 Use gender-neutral words ("human being", "person",
"individual", etc.) instead of gender-specific ones ("man",
"woman", "he", "she", "businessman", "mother", etc.)

The pseudo-generic man
 Other examples:
 mankind: humanity, human beings, people
 man’s achievements: human achievements
 the best man for the job: the best person for the job
 man the controls: take charge of
 man the ticket booth: staff the ticket booth
 average man: average person, ordinary person
 layman: layperson, non-specialist
 man and wife: husband and wife, partners
 man-made: artificial, handmade, manufactured, synthetic
 manpower: personnel, staff, workers, workforce
 workmanlike: skilful

Occupational stereotypes
 In most cases, generic terms such as doctor, judge, or actor include
both genders. In other cases, replace with the gender-neutral term:
• Stewardess: flight attendant, steward
• Authoress: author
• Chairman: chairperson (or chair).
• Salesman, saleswoman: salesperson or sales representative
• Anchorman: anchor
• Congressman: congress person, legislator, representative
• Cleaning lady: office cleaner
• Mailman: mail carrier, letter carrier, or post worker
• Waitress: server, wait staff, waitperson
• Etc.
 Avoid constructions like “The female doctor walked into the room” or
“The male nurse walked into the room.”
 This only reinforces the assumption that most or all doctors are male
and most or all nurses are female. Unless the sex of the nurse or doctor
is important to the meaning of the sentence, it should be omitted.

Occupational stereotypes
 Do not represent certain jobs or roles as only appropriate for, or
held by, women or men, i.e., farmers are men and nurses are
women.
 Watch for the use of female pronouns for elementary school teachers
and male ones for scientists, for example.
 When referring to a job or role, use a gender-specific pronoun
only if the gender of the person is known.
 Dear Mothers, Please bake cookies for our class party.
Revised: “Dear Families, please bake cookies for our class party.”
 “The convention attendees and their wives are invited.”
Revised: “NCTE convention attendees and their guests/spouses are
invited.”
 “The policy manual states that a director must take attendance of
participants at his monthly meetings (the director’s gender is unknown).
Revised: “The policy manual states that a director must take attendance
of participants at all monthly meetings.”

Address
 Avoid using the term “Miss” unless you know that a person prefers
to be referred to as such.
 Too often, people substitute Ms. for Miss and keep using Mrs. for
married women, defeating the original purpose of adopting Ms. to create
an equitable form of address for all women regardless of marital status.
Use Ms. for married as well as unmarried women.
 Alternate the order of reference
 Jane Morton and Vince Rubens
Mr. Rubens and Ms. Morton
Jane and Vince
 If you don't know the gender of the addressee, use Dear followed by
the person's initials and surname.
 Similarly, if you do not know the name of the addressee:
 Dear Madam or Sir; Dear Sir/Madam,
 Dear Editor/Service Representative/…
 To Whom it may concern

Equal treatment
 Avoid listing women as a separate category:
 “Students, women, unemployed and retired people...”
In this sentence, naming women excludes them from the other categories
 Revised: “Men and women who are studying, unemployed or retired…” or,
“People who are studying, unemployed or retired…”
 “The people... moved with women, elders and children... In search of better
climates.”
Revised: “The people moved in search of better climates.”
 Avoid asymetrical designation of women and men:
 “Mrs Thatcher... Reagan”
Revised: “Thatcher... Reagan”; “Mrs Thatcher... Mr. Reagan”.
 “The reading list included Jane Austen, Joyce, Proust, and Virginia Woolf.”
Revised: “The reading list included Austen, Joyce, Proust, and Woolf” (or Jane
Austen, James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and Virginia Woolf).
 “The invitation was addressed to Mr and Mrs Michael Webber.”
Revised: “The invitation was addressed to Dr Olivia and Mr Michael Webber.”
 “The invitation was addressed to Dr and Mrs Michael Webber (when both are
doctors).
Revised: “The invitation was addressed to Drs. Michael and Olivia Webber.”

Equal treatment
• When you mention the names of a woman and man together,
portray them as equals.
 Giselle Ward, the psychologist, and James Whyte, the teacher
 Denise Angus and her assistant Walter
Roy Bonneville, President, and his interpreter Jenn
Revised:
Denise Angus and her assistant Walter Banks
Roy Bonneville, President, and his interpreter Jenn Wilford
 This also applies to couples and work associates. Check whether
married couples share the same last name.
 Mr. and Mrs. Clayton Parker
Clayton Parker and his wife Maude
Revised:
Mr. and Mrs. Clayton and Maude Parker
Maude and Clayton Parker
Mr. and Mrs. Parker
 List names in alphabetical order or according to rank.

Unnecessary mention of gender
 Unless gender and related matters - looks, clothes,
parenthood - are relevant to your point, leave them
unmentioned.
 If you identify someone as a female architect, for example,
would you refer to someone else as a “male architect”?
 If you then note that the woman is an attractive blonde mother
of two, do you mention that the man is a muscular, dark-haired
father of three?
 Avoid irrelevant references to details such as a woman's
marital status, role or physical appearance.
 “Widow, 58, rescues kitten from tree”
Revised: Woman, 58, rescues kitten from tree
 “The always elegant Vice President, Rachel Wills, accepted
the award on behalf of the organisation.”
Revised: ”The Vice President, Rachel Wills, accepted the
award on behalf of the organisation.”

Respect
 Seek alternatives to language that omits, patronizes, or
trivializes women, as well as to language that reinforces
stereotyped images of both women and men.
 I'll have my girl do that job.: I'll ask my assistant (or secretary) to
do that job.
 Maria is a career woman.: Maria is a professional. Maria is a
doctor.
 You guys go ahead.: Group, folks, all of you
 The ladies on the committee all supported the bill.: The women
on the committee supported the bill.
 Pam had lunch with the girls at the office.: Pam had lunch with
the women at the office.
 This is a man-sized job.: This is a complex (huge, enormous,
difficult) job.
 Old maid; spinster: single person

Textual citations
 When citing from texts, make a choice whether to use a
directly stated passage or a paraphrase of the wording.
Though quoted passages cannot be altered, there are
options for making language more inclusive:
 Change a direct quotation into a paraphrase that fits the sense of
the discussion and retains the original author's intent and idea.
 Point out the gender-biased nature of the passage to defuse its
power.
 Make substantial revisions or deletions when language is
gender-biased or when stereotyped assumptions pervade a
passage.
 Consider avoiding the passage if doing so does not detract from
the writing's content, tone, or purpose.

 Represent and give voice to protagonists of both
genders
 Alternate between “him” and “her” when possible
according to context
 Attributes such as tenderness, compassion, strenght,
dynamism, authority, dignity, assurance, understanding,
etc., have to be shown valid for both genders, coherently
with the situation in which the person is depicted
 Show men and women in traditional and nontraditional
roles and without distinction in the description of tasks
Narration

 Dobletes: o/a, o(a), o-a
 Utilización de genéricos reales: personas, gente
 universitarios/as = estudiantes universitarios;
 director/a, politico/a, diplomatico/a = gobernante, líder, dirigente
 vecinos = vecindario
 hombre = seres humanos, humanidad o persona
 Empleo de los abstractos:
 los redactores = la redacción,
 los legisladores = la legislación
 “Elegiremos el presidente” = “Nombraremos alguién a la presidencia”/
”votaremos para la presidencia”
 Cuidado con el languaje colloquial: a veces, una forma feminina
atestada pueda sonar peyorativa o desvalorizante.
In Spanish and other romance languages

Checklist
 Have you used “he,” “him,” “his,” or “himself” to refer to
people who may be female?
 Have you used “man” or “men” or words containing one of
them to refer to people who may be female?
 Do you use any occupational stereotypes?
 Do you make proper use of titles?
 Is the designation of men and women symmetrical?
 If you have mentioned someone’s gender, was it necessary
to do so?
 Do you use language that in any way shows a lack of
respect for either sex?
 Did you revise the quoted text to ensure it is also inclusive?
 Does your narration give voice to protagonists of both
sexes? Are they depicted with coherent attributes and
tasks?

 Go beyond the first impression:
Images are ambiguous
Our experiences and the dominant ideology in
our society can affect how we look at a picture
Pictures are always a subjective production
The title, caption and context in which a
picture is used affect our interpretation
Visual represention

Title: Una mujer campesina de
Lake Victoria en Tanzania
recogiendo madera.
Geoff Sayer/Oxfam

Title: Una mujer campesina de Lake Victoria en Tanzania recogiendo
madera. Geoff Sayer/Oxfam

Title: Concurso de futbol
bolivarista.
Alexandra Hitter

Same event, different moment and angle
Alexandra Hitter

 Stereotypes have power
 Stereotypes have power over us as producers and
consumers of publicity and information, even when
we make a conscious effort to reject them
 Ex.: production and replication of sexist situations in
publicity
Visual representation

Stereotypes in pictures:
Romanticised traditional roles, “exoticism”, idealised vision of rural life,
etc.
Photo credit: Alexandra Hitter

Transformative images
Mujeres soldadas. Honduras. Oxfam
Bono Padre-Niños. Cochabamba. Alexandra Hitter

Titulo: Peligro, hombre trabajando. Alexandra Hitter

Keep in mind relations and power struggles
when choosing pictures
Producers
(photograph, client, editor…
Why do they need the picture?)
Subjects
(how are people depicted, with
what resources?)
Consumers, public
(Verifying precision of context,
access to source, how will the
context be interpreted?)

Analising gender in visual representations
 Visual : number of women, men, children; also analise
the representation of cultural origins. What are they
doing? How are they depicted? How are they described
in the title and caption?
 Text: consider when and how are mentioned women,
men, boys and girls, families and communities. What
associations or messages are suggested? Are they
precise and pertinent?
 General impression: Is the text coherent with the images
chosen to illustrate it? Ex. : ”children” for a picture
depicting young boys; “community” attached to a picture
of a group of men; “family” on a picture of a woman with
her children.

Gender in Communications
 Intentions
 Inform, move, sensitise, educate, mobilise, convince, promote, sale,
etc...
 What is our position? How does it affect my audience?
 Coherence
 Our own attitudes and actions are aligned with our message
 Are we really doing what we say we are doing? What concrete actions
can we cite as examples?
 Credibility
 Facts, data, presentations, testimonies, etc.
 What data/actions are documented? Do our publics know about facts
that might contradict or negate what we are saying?
 Channels
 Can we diferenciate or segment our channels to better reach the
women in our targeted audience, in consideration of their
situation/reality? (reach, impact, frecuency, variety, tone, traditional or
non traditional, formal or informal, etc.)

Selection of materials
 A balance of literature by and about both women and
men should be included whenever possible.
 The material should be placed in proper
historical/cultural context or be balanced by other texts
that show gender-fair roles and assumptions.
 Books, texts, videos, and other media resources should
be chosen to show females and males actively
participating in a variety of situations at home, work, or
play.

Educational activities
 Choose headings and activities that do not assume stereotypic male
and female interests.
 Avoid promoting competition of sexes, for example, a debate with males
taking one side of the issue, females the other.
 Avoid assuming gendered interests and abilities, i.e., girls
decorate, boys boot up the computer, girls are like to talk, boys play
sports.
 Present gender-equitable examples by alternating male and female
names and by avoiding the use of stereotyped gender roles.
 When discussing roles traditionally held by males, use examples of
females in those roles; use examples of males in roles traditionally held
by females.
 Find informal ways to collect feedback from women if they tend to
not address their concerns publicly in group settings.
 Ask questions to specific people, equally to men and women, to
engage everyone within the group.

Examples and contents taken from these sources:
 CECI:
 “Correspondencias en los temas de género y de comunicaciones”,
Valérie Boire y Alexandra Hitter, Mayo 2012, La Paz, Bolivia
 Wikipedia:
 Gender-specific and gender-neutral pronouns
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-specific_and_gender-
neutral_pronouns#Alternatives_to_generic_he
 Gender neutrality in English
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_neutrality_in_English
 Gender marking in job titles
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_marking_in_job_titles
 Singular they
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
References

 American Psychological Association
 Avoiding Heterosexual Bias in Language
• http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/language.aspx
 Language Portal of Canada
 Guidelines for gender-neutral language
• http://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/bien-well/fra-
eng/style/nonsexistguidelines-eng.html#sn
 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
 Guidelines for Gender-Fair Use of Language
• http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/genderfairuseoflang
 Marquette University
 Tips for Using Inclusive, Gender Neutral Language
• http://www.marquette.edu/wac/neutral/NeutralInclusiveLanguage.sh
tml
References

References
 The Law Student's Guide to Good Writing by
Professor Marc A. Grinker Gender Neutral Language, Copyright (c)
1994
 Gender Neutral Language
• http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaGender_Neutral
_Language.htm
 The Writing Center, College of Arts and Sciences, University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
 Gender-Sensitive Language
• http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/gender-sensitive-language/

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